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Little change beginning today, VizWorld readers.  Now, the “Pixels” posts will be organized by ‘type’ (You’ll see below “Review”, “Tutorial”, “Inspiration”) and also include links to good deals.  If you find a good deal on a product, definitely send it in to us to be included.

Here’s the pixels for today:

Links:

• News: Stephen Rosenbaum joins Digital Domain as a visual effects supervisor
• Tool: MayaMaya – Apple Script for opening multiple copies of Maya
• Contest: ArsTechnica giving away a chance to play Starcraft 2
• Review: After Effects vs Nuke (Must join AE Premium for full review)
• Tutorial: Generate a Dynamic Morphing Background Design
• Tutorial: Export Flash to PNG with HYPE
• Tutorial: Drawing with Limited Colors in Illustrator
• Tutorial: How to use Exposure Bracketing
• Tutorial: Modeling a Spaceship with Texturing & Subdivision Poly’s
• Inspiration: 25 Amazing Typography Videos
• Inspiration: Interview with Hyward Winterson, AKA Dyst
• Inspiration: 25 Fantastic Vector Portraits
• Inspiration: 110 Sensational Cityscape Photographs
• Inspiration: 50 Examples of Concept Art

Deals:

• Movie: Gamer ( or Amazon)
• Movie: District 9 ( or Amazon)
• Movies: Amazon is having an “Action & Adventure” Sale on DVD’s & BluRay
• GameStop: $7 off & Free Shipping on any game over $39.99

Graphics, Hardware pixels

Expreview has snagged the two pictures to the right of the new XFX GeForce GTX 480 and the XFX GeForce GTX 470. These look like final products to me, especially since the release date is only a week away.

The GeForce GTX 480 is reported to have 480 Shader Processors running at 1401 MHz, a 700 MHz core, 1.536 GB of memory running at 1848MHz on a 384-bit memory bus. It is expected to consume about 250W TDP and cost US$499.

The GeForce GTX 470 is reported to have 448 Shader Processors running at 1215 MHz, a 607 MHz core, 1.280 GB of memory running at 1674MHz on a 320-bit memory bus. It is expected to consume about 225W TDP and cost US$349.

You can click on the images to the right for a larger, better view. You can also click on the link below to see more pictures.

via Expreview

Hardware fermi, gt100, gtx480, nvidia

Imagine putting five 22″ LCD monitors together to run a 5×1 Eyefinity setup. That is a total screen resolution of 8400×1050. That is not too shabby. The setup was a Intel E5200 CPU running at 3.33 GHz, 4GB of memory, and a Radeon HD5850. The game they are playing is DIRT2. Of course, a 5×1 setup is not currently available in the ATI drivers, but as we have reported before, it should be coming soon. Take a look at the embedded video below.

via YouTube – 8400×1050 @ DIRT2 5x 22″ LCD setup.

Hardware amd, ati, eyefinity, radeon

Samsung made a small splash in the 3D pond at CEBIT recently with the announcement of their “3D Starter Kit”, which contained a pair of wireless (battery-driven) 3D Shutter glasses and a 3D Blu-ray movie, all compatible with their upcoming new line of 3D Televisions.  Now, the 3D Starter Kit and the TV are available for pre-order from Amazon.

The 3D Glasses Kit, the Samsung SSG-P2100T, is available for order today (and in-stock) for $349.99.  No word on what “Blu-ray 3D Movie” is included, but other sources state that it is a special previously-unavailable 3D release Monsters vs. Aliens, last year’s Dreamworks Animation release. It comes with no emitter, instead relying on integrated emitters that Samsung will be packaging inside compatible televisions.

Of course, they have a TV for that..

The compatible television is the Samsung PN50C7000, a 50-Inch 1080p 3D Plasma Television.  Unfortunately, it’s not LCD, but the slim-design TV comes fully equipped for 3D at the low-price of $1,799 and is available for pre-order now with a ship date of April 2nd. From their own description:

Get a true cinematic experience without going to the cinema with a Samsung plasma HDTV. This Samsung PN50C7000, with Mega Dynamic Contrast Ratio makes sure every frame is saturated with dense, rich color. Samsung is also ENERGY STAR compliant so you are assured that your 50 -inch plasma HDTV is helping the environment by using less enery while saving you money.

Both items are only eligible for shipping in the US (the TV only in the lower-48), so international customers will have to wait.

Hardware 3d, samsung, stereoscopic, tv

Another day, another Fermi rumor.  This time, Toms Hardware brings us news posted over at VR-Zone of the Fermi-based GeForce GTX480 and GTX470 cards:

GeForce GTX 480 : 512 SP, 384-bit, 295W TDP, US$499

GeForce GTX 470 : 448 SP, 320-bit, 225W TDP, US$349

Internal benchmarks reveal that GeForce GTX 470 is some 5-10% faster than Radeon HD 5850 and similiar [sic] for GeForce GTX 480 over the Radeon HD 5870.

Also, the VR-Zone forums are playing host to a picture from Turkish Website DonanimHaber, purportedly of the first Nvidia-made GeForce GTX480.

Are they real?  We’ll know in 7 days.

Update 10am: VRZone has revised the figures like so:

GeForce GTX 480 : 480 SP, 700/1401/1848MHz core/shader/mem, 384-bit, 1536MB, 250W TDP, US$499

GeForce GTX 470 : 448 SP, 607/1215/1674MHz core/shader/mem, 320-bit, 1280MB, 225W TDP, US$349

* The intended GF100 has 512 SP clocked at 725/1450/1050MHz with 295W TDP. It should still be released in the future but just not now. For this launch, GTX 480 has 480 SP with clocks lowered to 700/1401/1848MHz at 250W TDP.

I hate to say it, but the Fermi is starting to look a bit disappointing from a Graphics angle.  I’m sure it will rock at GPGPU (mostly thanks to the double-precision support), but for graphics it’s not looking any better than ATI’s offerings (even lacking a bit, if you bring in the 5890).

via More GeForce GTX 480, GTX 470 Details Leaked.

Hardware fermi, nvidia, rumor

TechEYE.net has an article up claiming to have an inside source on the Intel Larrabee engineering team that claims news of Larrabee’s death has been greatly exaggerated. (…)

Hardware intel, larrabee

Guru3D has posted a news item today on the PowerColor HD5770 Eyefinity5 card. The card runs its GPU core at 850 MHz, while the 1GB of DDR5 memory runs at 1200 MHz. (…)

Hardware amd, ati, eyefinity, radeon

Yesterday we told you about how Internet Explorer 9 is becoming GPU aware, and using it to offload some of the rendering work. Today, AnandTech has posted a review on the Internet Explorer 9 Preview. (…)

Hardware gpgpu, microsoft, nvidia

Fans of the RED camera series might want to check out the latest episode of fxguidetv (Episode #076) where they get into some nitty gritty details. (…)

Hardware red, redcine

AMD has just released the Catalyst 10.3a preview drivers. These drivers offer improved support for Eyefinity by including bezel correction. (…)

Hardware amd, ati, drivers

For the past six months, AMD has brought us the fastest DirectX 11 graphics card on the planet. Not only that, but they have created a new market with their Eyefinity technology. (…)

Hardware 3d, amd, ati, stereo

NVidia’s Brian Burke brings us news of a new NVidia Driver that’s out, and while not WHQL certified this time, it does resolve the previous Fan issue found in 196.75 (supposedly, we haven’t tested it ourselves yet).  From their own release notes:
This is a WHQL-candidate driver for GeForce 6, 7, 8, 9, 100, 200, and 300-series desktop GPUs and ION desktop GPUs. (…)

Hardware drivers, nvidia

Fudzilla is reporting that Nvidia is aiming for lower prices for the new Geforce GTX 480. That would be nice if it is true, but I have to admit that I am skeptical. (…)

Hardware fermi, gt100, gtx480, nvidia

Earlier this week, you could have thought Britain’s Sky TV was single-handedly funding the 3D Television movement thanks to a new press release from LG touting a massive sale of 15,000 3D television sets they plan to deploy across the UK to promote their new 3D content.  You may remember the lackluster reception they got from their last attempt, and it looks like they’ve learned their lesson and will have more venues (many more) to hit a wider audience. (…)

Hardware 3d, lg, sky, stereoscopic

Some days it seems like all we do is publish news from the green camp called Nvidia. Since today is St. Patrick’s Day, I guess that is allowed. (…)

Hardware fermi, gt100, gtx480, nvidia

BOXX technologies has just made a leap in compute density with their new “renderBOXX 10400″ system that features Intel’s Xeon 5600 6-core processor. (…)

Hardware boxx

[H]ard|OCP has a review today of the PowerColor PCS+ HD5870 and HD5850 video cards featuring chips from ATI. (…)

Hardware 5850, 5870, ati, radeon

An industry insider going by the pseudonym of “Alexander Murphy” has an article up on Gizmodo railing against the movie studios’ continue push for more 3D movies, and cutting every corner they can to “milk the 3D cow”.  Starting with the usual complaints (the glasses are uncomfortable and dorky), before moving into more technical issues (post-processing 2D into 3D isn’t really 3D and does a disservice to those shooting in true 3D like Avatar), and then summing it up nicely with this one very technical issue:
And there’s the final nail in this absurd 3D show: The eyeglasses. (…)

Hardware 3d, movie, stereostopic

NAB2010 is coming up quickly, only a month away (April 10-15th), and the organizers have smiled upon us again this year and provided me with a special free exhibits-only registration code for all you VizWorld readers to user!  Simply visit the NABShow Registration Page and use the special promo code A913 to get your free registration.

Update: Due to a glitch, the original code posted here was the wrong code!  The previously posted code UG44 is for $100 off the PostProduction World Conference (PPWC), still a great deal if you are interested in attending.  Use code A913 to get the free exhibits-only registration.

One other neat thing going on at NAB this year is the “Post Pit“, which will be running live from the floor.

Post Pit brings together users, rock stars and creators of the most savvy and dynamic post-production software available. During the day, post-production geniuses take the stage to give hot and exclusive tips, while at night, no matter your platform of choice, you can join together with fellow pros for a uniting reception.

Features the NAB Show BuZZ, the official production podcast of the 2010 NAB Show produced by Digital Production BuZZ. Watch the program come together in the live on-floor podcast studio featuring interviews with Post Pit speakers, along with other industry movers and shakers.

No doubt press releases and product announcements will begin piling up as the conference approaches.  Will you be attending NAB2010 this year?  If so, post in the comments and maybe you can meet your fellow Vizworld Readers!

Graphics, Hardware conference, feature, nab

Nvidia has recently announced 3DTV Play. This feature allows you to play 3-D video games from your desktop or laptop. (…)

Hardware 3d, hdtv, nvidia